AFRICAN Development Bank (AfDB) has expressed satisfaction
on Tanzania’s implementation of water and sanitation projects, promising to
continue working closely with the government towards the target of availing
water and sanitation services to more citizens.
AfDB Director of Water and Sanitation Department Mohamed El
Azizi said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the bank has financed a number of
water and sanitation projects in Tanzania and in Africa in general.
Mr El Azizi was speaking at sixth Africa Water Week, which
started on July 18 through July 22, under the theme of achieving Sustainable
Development Goals on Water Security and Sanitation.
The continent’s development financier has since 2001
approved nine water and sanitation operations in Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar
at a total cost of about 700 million US dollars (over 1.5trn/-).
The director advised the government and development partners
to increase funding for water and sanitation projects to address the problem of
access to reliable water and sanitation services facing a number of African
countries.
The bank indicated that for Africa to achieve the
Sustainable Development Goals there must be political commitment,
prioritisation of water and sanitation issues, as well as more budget
allocation to the water and sanitation sector.
“At the African Development Bank we are already supporting
large scale water and sanitation projects like the Arusha Sustainable Urban
Water and Sanitation Project which will cost over 200 million US dollars,” he
said.
The AfDB recently agreed to focus on five priority actions
and goals which will help to transform the African continent. The five priority
goals, which AfDB calls the “High 5s for Africa” are: Light Up and Power
Africa; Feed Africa; Industrialise Africa; Integrate Africa and Improve the
Quality of Life for Africans which will directly contribute to the development
of the water infrastructure and the water security.
According to the director, water and sanitation will remain
one of the key development challenges facing communities and nations of Africa
since it will have direct impacts on the economic growth and on the attainment
of most other Sustainable Development Goals, the international targets that
replaced the Millennium Development Goals in 2015.
Africa is one of the developing regions which have not met
the drinking water and sanitation targets. More than 50 per cent of Africa’s
population currently does not have access to safe and reliable water and
sanitation services.
Also an estimated one million Africans die every year from
lack of adequate sanitation, hygiene or from water borne diseases.
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